When Jean Jacques Diouf climbed the gangway of the Africa Mercy® for the first time in his home country of Senegal, he’d packed his suitcase with enough supplies for just one week. He figured he wasn’t going to be on board for long. He’d only come to volunteer because...

Volunteers
Videos
It takes skills of all kinds to bring hope and healing. See how our volunteer crew makes a difference on board.
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Volunteers
Posts
Bringing a Crew Together on the World’s Largest Civilian Hospital Ships
It takes hundreds of volunteers to power Mercy Ships’ mission to deliver safe and free surgeries via hospital ships. These amazing volunteers need to be equipped with professional skills in medicine, seafaring, accounting, cooking, and many other fields. They come...
The Woman Who Forged Her Way Through Walls: Florence Bangura’s Story
Florence Bangura’s history with Mercy Ships spans 20 years, covering two countries, three ships, and four field services. At the age of 29, Florence worked as a welder on board the very first Mercy Ships' hospital ship, the Anastasis, just a week after becoming...
Two Dentists Find a Powerful Shared Purpose on the Global Mercy™
Dr. Marijke Westerduin and Dr. Salematou Camara met face-to-face as dentists on board the world’s largest civilian hospital ship – but their first encounter took place years earlier through a screen. In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, Dr....
A Decade of Giving Back: One Maritime Volunteer’s Story
As a member of the international community living and working on board the Global Mercy™, volunteer assistant bosun Ishaka Sesay is conscious that he has become an ambassador for his home country of Sierra Leone. “That is why… people never see me with a frowning face,...
Bringing Life Into Their Days: A Spotlight on the Mercy Ships Palliative Care Team
Mercy Ships strives to make safe surgical care accessible for as many as possible on board its fleet of floating hospitals, providing more than 114,000 life-changing or lifesaving surgical procedures since 1978. However, the sad reality is that not every single...